Isthar
'Biology' As their name might suggest, Dark Elves are known for their dark complexions as shades of darker greys, blacks, and purples compose the variations of their skin. Out of the elves, Dark Elves possess the longest and most slender ears with some seen with with small tuffs of fur/hair at their ends. Dark Elves are always born with white hair, though it is commonly dirtied with soil to give it a darker appearance or streaked with chalks to hold colors. Due to living a large portion of their lives underground, their eyes are very sensitive to light with large, dialated pupils that allows them to see in extreme low lighting. Not as physically adept as Wood Elves nor as magically capable as High Elves, Dark Elves instead hold a honed wit and mind that gives the capability to survive and use a specialized type of earth magic. This earth magic allows them to sense passages and minerals in the ground and making it far easier to navigate through their tunnels. Their diet highly consists of proteins from animals and insects they find underground, such as grubs. They rank as the shortest of the elves, normally growing to human height or smaller. 'Culture' The culture of Dark Elves is unique in the sense that it is highly influenced by the cultures around it. Once a mighty, overbaring race with an empire that spanned the depths of Taloch, a disaster nearly destroyed their people and past. Hundreds of years have since passed since that time, and in it the Dark Elves have grown and adapted. Lingering within higher tunnels crafted long ago by their people, a large majority of their lives are spent underground. Dark Elves have adapted to live in this environment, making direct exposure to sunlight and the sky both disorienting and injuring. Instead, Dark Elves venture out during the safer, more comfortable hours of night to tease, prank, and play. More rarely they use this time to comminicate with others to trade news, goods, and perhaps even attempt to hunt smaller animals. Their culture has devolved into a state of primitive innocence. Their written word is forgotten, and their verbal language has also evolved as it slightly differs from region to region with the influence of other languages and new slang. No matter the area, Dark Elves love puns and frequently attempt to outdo each other in contents involving them, much to the dismay of many creatures. - Earth Magic, Daily Lives - Relationships 'Government' 'Religion' 'Relations' High Elves Dwarves 'History' Information *The Isthar once had a large empire that, for it's time, was the largest and most Information -Dark Elves once had a very big empire that held grand cities under the earth. Think of the dwarven cities in DA. They were powerful and wealthy, taking the precious minerals out of the earth and destroying any who tried to oppose their will. Their technology was decent and their warriors were without mercy. There were a very 'cold' people. Then their empire fell because of something ( Im thinking that they got their hands on some powerful Artifacts and their warlike tendancies turned in on themselves and they ended up nearly slaughtering their own people, but that doesn't need to be on here I just wanted to share). -Their people have come back since then, inhabitting the shallower tunnels and remaining close to the surface and never really straying any deeper into the cities and cavities because of legends and rumors of monsters being down there (imagine the Deep Roads of DA). -Their culture took a dramtic shift and they seem almost afraid of power now because of their past. They basically eat grubs, fungi, small animals, and anything they can find underground (think of the protein brah!), get water from underground rivers, and their underground tunnels have a lot of low lighting bioluminacent creatures and plants that they use. -Their skin tones are pretty dark (deep purples, blues, blacks and greys), their eyes are very dialated and round to gather as much light as possible, their hair is very light (whites and light greys) but because of living among dirt it frequently becomes darker and its commonly believed that Dark Elves have black hair because of this (hah!). -They pretty much are really peaceful and calm, gathered in communities which all look out for each other (imagine like a hippy town). Its very family-oriented, and almost all Dark Elves are seen as family. They stray above ground only at night to prank and tease surface-dwellers (because their eyes can't handle the daylight) and also use this time to grab/steal any other food they can find (gathering fruits and the like from plants and even stealing food from villages). -No one really wants to fight against the Dark Elves or hurt them because 1) they're pretty harmless and don't seem to outright want to hurt anyone, 2) no one really knows how many there are under the ground. If you ever pissed them off, they could flock towards you and get to you easily because their tunnels are everywhere and they might easily outnumber you. This is one reason the Selvik Empire hasn't touched them or tried to enslave them. -Speaking of which, in regards to the war they are kinda nuetral but of course are willing to help anyone who needs it. If they find an elf who's running away from slavers, or find an injured human soldier, they'll help them out equally. However the moment you actively start acting 'wrongly/evil' and show signs you're a rotten person they might find themselves thrown down and lost into the deeper tunnels. -Dark Elves magic is naturally atuned to the physical, actual earth. They can move moderate amounts of dirt (think earth benders from Avatar, cept they dont do the poses/movements and instead can will it to move) and this helps them keep making new tunnels. They can also sense whats in it, meaning they can easily sense raw deposits of rare metals and get them. -However, they can't refine the precious metals, as they don't have the equipment or skills to do so. Instead they trade it with the dwarves of the surface, allowing them to refine it and craft it. The Dark Elves get to keep a percentage of whats made, and they especially like to be given the jewelry (they love shiny things so this is their motivation behind it). Because of this many Dark Elves are shown wearing such things, gold adornments being the most common. -Their relationship with the High Elves is strainuious. The High Elves see the Dark Elves as filthy savages and the Dark Elves see them as pompous and boring. The High Elves have actually tweaked their Barrier in order to keep Dark Elves out, but the Dark Elves just make deeper tunnels to go under it and come and go as they please. -The Dark Elf culture adapts to the culture above them, borrowing clothing and Category:Elven Races